matchlock

matchlock

Early matchlocks as illustrated in the Baburnama (16th century)

These large cumborsome guns had a short range and an erratic aim, which is why soldiers preferred archery to musketry till a late period. A matchlock from a later period (18th century), much smaller bore and with a longer range, as illustrated in a hunting scene from the Rajput Kingdom of Kishangarh:

In the picture you can clearly see the gunpowder-smoke emerging at two places: from the barrel and the touch hole.

Actually the guns shown in the Baburnama are technically not match-locks, since they did not have a firing mechanism to lower the lit match (a slow burning wick) into the touch hole. In those early guns this had to be done by hand, making the process of firing very cumbersome and the aim terribly inaccurate. For this reason archers continued to be used in Indian armies till the late 17th century.